Andor Is The Most Classic Star Wars Since A New Hope

thegamer.com:

The call to adventure. Every hero must answer it. That’s an insight from Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces, a seminal text that greatly influenced George Lucas, Star Wars, and thus modern blockbuster cinema. This study by the American mythologist analysed hundreds of myths and legends from cultures around the world, and identified themes common to them. Campbell called this template the Hero’s Journey, and the original Star Wars, subsequently subtitled A New Hope, had its fingerprints all over it.

Andor bears the same hallmarks of Campbell’s writings. The new Disney Plus series follows Cassian Andor, the second protagonist of Rogue One, playing off Felicity Jones’ Jyn Erso, in that wonderfully tragic, gritty entry in the Wars movie canon. Diego Luna reprises his role as Cassian in this limited series, a prequel of sorts, documenting his transformation into a rebel operative. For these are the days of The Galactic Empire’s ascendancy and its evil oppressiveness is being felt across the galaxy.

Related: Fallen Order Is The Best Star Wars Story Since Rogue One

But the first two episodes of Andor are dense, somewhat dull, full of intrigue that barely registers. Muttered things going on; wheeling and dealing. None of which you need to pay much attention to. But by the third episode, things take flight, literally. Something catches and Andor suddenly lifts off. This is where I was reminded of A New Hope.

When Lucas showed the young Skywalker looking far out into the distance, in the desert of Tatooine, gazing at a horizon where the binary suns lit up the sky, as John Williams’ incomparable score played out, he touched something deep inside. It was the call to adventure, the dream of something bigger. This is